Banana Walnut Muffins

Just when I thought the rainy season was finished in Hawaii, we had another wet and overcast day today. I actually like it though, it keeps things really cool and green. It will be plenty hot enough in a month or so – a time of year I do not look forward to. During the summer it gets so hot that all I can do is turn on the air con, go on the internet, and plan my next snowy winter vacation.
Back to breakfast, here’s what I had on this rainy morning…whole wheat banana walnut muffins. A simple recipe as always and decently healthy. Great to make when like me you have some bananas getting a little too ripe.

DIRECTIONS
Combine the whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl put in the bananas and cut in to small pieces with a fork. Smash the bananas with your fork so that it mostly mashed but with some small chunks of bananas.

Add in the egg, vanilla, and milk to the banana mixture. Combine the dry and wet ingredients and also the walnuts. Mix briefly then pour into a nonstick muffin pan. If you really like walnuts, sprinkle some extra pieces on top of the batter before baking. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes. Makes 7 or 8 muffins.

NOTES
Remove the muffins from the pan as soon as they come out of the oven. You may need to run a knife around the edges to get them out but they should come out pretty easily. Just don’t let them cool in the pan or the caramelized sugar and banana may permanently cement the muffin to your pan.

Hi Joanna,
If you haven’t tried whole wheat before, you may want to adjust the recipe to 2/3 cup whole wheat flour and 1/3 cup all purpose. At least until you get used to the texture and flavor of whole wheat. Thanks for the compliment on the photos!

Hi kat,
I hope you can find whole wheat flour in Japan. Can you imagine bringing a bag of flour back in your suitcase? One bad toss or smash from another bag…would not be good.

Hi Helene,
Thanks! And Comox Valley is so beautiful, I love going to Canada. B.C. is great and I really enjoy visiting Alberta as well…during the winter.

Hi rowena,
Yes, great for the freezer. A little sad – this morning I took the last one out from the freezer to bring to work as a snack. Guess I’ll just have to make more this weekend!

Hi White on Rice Couple,
Thanks! Yes I always have better lighting in my photos on the weekend. That’s the only time when I can use natural light for my pics. And that is my kitchen window … with a little palm tree in the background.

YUMMY! A word of caution: This recipe does not work well with the little paper mini cups. The muffins taste great, however unable to peel the muffin away from the paper so 1/4 of the muffin is stuck.
Very tastey!- We will for go the mini paper cups in the future.

I’ve never made muffins before… just found myself with two ripe bananas & I found this via google. THANK YOU! What a great, easy & absurdly gorgeous recipe.
I am now making my second batch… friends came & scoffed the lot!

I’ve made banana bread before and it definitely did not taste as good as this! Thanks for the recipe, I’ve added this page to my bookmarks!

I added 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips (leftovers) and about 3 tablespoons of applesauce to it (I was paranoid that the muffins would come out dry like my banana bread, I’m sure it’s moist without it)

These look delicious and I am envious of worrying about having too hot of weather in Hawaii and the beautiful scenery to go with it. I almost interviewed to earn a teaching position in Hawaii just to be there. I teach in NY and while I love our scenery as well, I do so dread the winters. This year though I do have to add it has not so bad.

I made these today and they were delicious! I made a few changes though: I used 3/4 cup whole wheat flour instead of 1 cup (this was not intentional (lol), but they still came out fantastic!), I omitted the sugar and used a puree of reconstituted dried apricots (apricots go really well with bananas), used almond milk, and used almond extract instead of vanilla. Oh! And I pureed the bananas completely (I’m not a fan of banana chunk…too much of a funky texture. They were sooo amazing. I’m taking them to my bf’s house tomorrow…and then I will make another batch just for myself! Thank you for the recipe.

A rainy day here in Ireland – the start of the winter I’m afraid, but made much more enjoyable with this yummy recipe!! It’s 4.30 in the evening, the fire is lighting, and we’re sitting down to enjoy our muffins! Thanks!